Despite all the hot air, the world’s leaders have failed to cobble together any meaningful climate deal as negotiations broke down at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen earlier this month. If binding emission targets cannot be agreed in the coming year then governments may look increasingly to a “third way” – engineering the climate such as removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In September, the UK’s Royal Society published a report that looks at different geoengineering options, including constructing giant sunshades in space that can reflect the Sun’s rays and introducing iron into the world’s oceans to rapidly increase the amount of phytoplankton that consume carbon dioxide. 2009 in pictures – physicsworld.com
Despite all the hot air, the world’s leaders have failed to cobble together any meaningful climate deal as negotiations broke down at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen earlier this month. If binding emission targets cannot be agreed in the coming year then governments may look increasingly to a “third way” – engineering the climate such as removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In September, the UK’s Royal Society published a report that looks at different geoengineering options, including constructing giant sunshades in space that can reflect the Sun’s rays and introducing iron into the world’s oceans to rapidly increase the amount of phytoplankton that consume carbon dioxide.
